I have two marvelous covers to share with you.  First, the cover for my upcoming Kristine Grayson title, Wickedly Charming, which Sourcebooks will publish next spring.  I’m starting up an official Kristine Grayson website this month, so there will be more information on the book on that site by the fifteenth or so.  Suffice to say, Wickedly Charming is about another Prince Charming (not Sleeping Beauty’s Charming [that's Utterly Charming to be reissued after Wickedly Charming], but Cinderella’s Charming, now divorced) who falls in love with one of the evil stepmother’s (Snow White’s. And she’s not evil, just misunderstood).  Confused yet?  You won’t be.  It’s all in good fun.

Here’s the stunning cover:

As soon as I have an exact publication date, I’ll let you know. But it’ll be Spring 2011, so mark your calendars.

The other cover I have to share with you is for a reissue of my very first published novel.  Not the first novel I ever wrote, which my sister finally gave back to me (I was 12 when I wrote it). That novel will never see print, particularly since it’s fanfic.  And badly written. And somewhat juvenile.

This novel, my first to ever be published, I’m still quite proud of.  It’s called The White Mists of Power, and it’s been out of print in the United States for nearly twenty years.  (It’s still in print in at least two other countries, though.)

Here’s the very striking cover:

The book will appear electronically this month.  I’ll let you know when it goes up on the first few sites.  It’ll be on the others by the middle of September.  (It takes a while.)  The print edition will appear this fall from WMG Publishing.  Again, watch this space, and I’ll let you know exact dates.

Still, I had the covers, and I had to share them.

Because I was teaching last week and madly finishing up a novel (which I’m still working on), I got behind in posting the new electronic stories. WMG Publishing is reprinting my entire backlist of short stories in electronic editions, and WMG’s imprint, Five Story Publishing, is publishing groups of those stories by theme in collections. The collections are economical, cheaper than buying the stories individually. The blurb about the collection lists story titles, so you can make sure you’re not getting the same story twice.

I’m only going to post the most recent collections here. I haven’t yet notified you of about ten short stories, so poke around your favorite e-book site. You’ll find other things by me. Also, remember that Smashwords has e-books in all formats. I’ll also list Kindle here. It takes about six weeks for the books to hit Barnes & Noble, and the iBook store, so you can either use the Smashwords file or check back. The books will hit those sites eventually.

First the largest Five Story collection–Five Short Novels:

Five novellas, or short novels, for about 120,000 words of fiction, which is much larger than most fantasy novels. In this collection, you’ll find “Coolhunting,” “Broken Windchimes,” “Dragon’s Tooth,” “The Recovery Man’s Bargain,” and “The Spires of Denon.”  Three are from ongoing series–Abracadabra Inc. (“Dragon’s Tooth”), The Retrieval Artist (“The Recovery Man’s Bargain”), and the Diving universe (“The Spires of Denon.”)  The other two are stand-alone award winners.  You can also get all five as single books.

Kindle, Scribd, Smashwords.

What these five stories have in common is this: They’re set in Oregon and I wrote them.  Otherwise, they’re a group of very diverse tales.  Two are nominally sf (“The One That Got Away” and “Going Native”), two are mystery (“Patriotic Gestures” and “The Moorhead House”) and one is…well…just a Kris story (and one of my favorites): “The Amazing Quizmo.”  There will be other five-story collections with matching settings. This just happens to be the first, and set in my home state.  Go figure.

Kindle, Scribd, Smashwords

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s September/October issue contains my story “Mr. Alibi.”  It’s about an unusual detective and an even more unusual situation.  A bit fun, a bit weird.  You can order it here or get it at your local newsstand.  Or download entire issue on Kindle or Fictionwise.

Due to some publishing weirdness that no one can adequately explain to me, Hitler’s Angel won’t be available in the United States until January of 2011.  Except at one bookstore.  The exception came because I live near that bookstore.  North by Northwest Books has copies for sale and they are signed. The bookstore will ship anywhere in the United States.  You can contact them here:

North by Northwest Books
Sheldon McArthur, proprietor
Streetcar Village
6334 S. Hwy 101 #9
Lincoln City, OR 97367
541-994-3087
mcarthurca@earthlink.net

You can also order the book through British bookstores.  Bookbrain.co.uk has a handy list of the stores that have the book in stock.

Hitler’s Angel has been getting stellar reviews in England. Crime Time has a thoughtful full page review.  The Daily Mail called it “a little gem of a thriller. Startling and wonderfully effective.”  So find yourself a copy.  I think you’ll like it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1290621/Thrillers.html#ixzz0uejjUWzx

Here are the stories that have gone live this week.  There will be more in the coming weeks.

As I mentioned before, it takes a while for some of the books to hit sources other than Smashwords and Kindle.  Just this week, the ebooks those places published months ago have now arrived at Barnes And Noble’s website.  So if you have a Nook, you can start ordering some of the shorter ebooks.  Remember that Smashwords allows you to download in any format you need, so if you want to start reading now and the books aren’t on your favorite site, click the Smashwords link.

There is a collection below in addition to the short novel and individual stories.

As you can probably tell, every now and then I write something really strange.  ”The One That Got Away” involves blackjack, UFOs, casinos, and people on the run.  And yes, it fits into the really strange category.

Kindle, Scribd, Smashwords

“Flower Fairies” first appeared in Realms of Fantasy.  It’s a gentle urban fantasy set in, of all places, a funeral home.  The opening image came to me in a dream, which doesn’t happen very often.

Kindle, Scribd, Smashwords

Set in Paris, this short novel is part of the upcoming Abracadabra Incorporated series. An urban fantasy with magic, thieves, and maybe even a dragon.

Kindle, Scribd, Smashwords

Five stories for the price of three! In this collection, you’ll find the heartwarming “Flower Fairies,” the whimsical “The Poop Thief,” the outrageous “Say Hello To My Little Friend,” the political vampire tale, “Victims,” and a tale of high school gone wrong, “Domestic Magic.”

Kindle, Scribd, Smashwords